Processing Cow Milk into Traditional Indian Dairy Sweets - Adding Value to A2 milk

Traditionally, India has richly been endowed with the best quality milk yielding cow species like Sahiwal, Haryana, Red Sindhi etc.

- Vipul Jaglan*

It is a proven scientific fact now that the milk from indigenous breeds of cattle is far better than exotic breed’s milk. Procurement of the high- quality desi cow milk, especially by private firms, at the same price as for other breeds milk is in a sense exploitation of the farmers who are contributing in conserving these superior breeds. The indigenous cow breeds offer immense opportunities for taking the farmers out of poverty. Exploring the cow milk for processing and creating better procurement, processing and marketing infrastructure along with enhanced consumer awareness regarding the health usefulness of desi cow milk-based dairy products can help in bringing sustainability to this segment and boosting livelihood opportunities. Farmers by organizing themselves into small groups in form of Self- help group, milk producer & processor groups can find enhanced access to market and thereby convert it into a profitable venture. One method can be collecting the marketable surplus milk and converting it into valuable products using simple technologies. Traditional Indian dairy products manufacturing involve simple manufacturing technologies, inexpensive infrastructure requirement and with well-established market offers plentiful scope to generate employment. This article discusses the technological perspective of popular chhana based dairy sweets like Rasogolla, Ras-malai and Rajbhog that are best made out from cow milk.

WHY COW MILK?